1000 GIRLS IMPREGNATED

National AIDS Council (NAC) in North-Western Province has disclosed that over one thousand school girls fall pregnant every year in the region.Provincial AIDS Coordination Advisor, Hillary Sakala said the increase in the number of pregnancies shows low HIV comprehensive knowledge in the province.“Over 1,000 girls are falling pregnant every year which shows that HIV comprehensive knowledge is low and the province is not doing well”, Mr Sakala said.Mr Sakala said the number of girls falling pregnant annually is directly related to the increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases.Mr Sakala said according to school pregnancies statistics of 2019, the number of girls who fell pregnant stood at 1,232.“During the second quarter of 2020, 27,168 were tested for HIV of which over 1,395 tested positive”, he said.Mr Sakala said this in his presentation during a Strengthening Girls Right Project phase three meeting being organized by Germany Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Conjunction with NAC in Solwezi yesterday.Meanwhile, GIZ Girls Rights Development Advisor, Benjamin Kalkum said the project is designed to address challenges adolescents are facing in school and other set ups with regards to sexual education.Mr Kalkum said the project is a three years program being implemented in three province that include Lusaka, Southern and North Western Provinces.“It is a three years program of which is almost coming to the end of the first year targeting girls and young women”, he said.Mr Kalkum said they have designed a learning tool kit called a Joint in Circuit (JIC) which is used to explain sexual education in a simple way.He said JIC is riding on the comprehensive sexuality education program which is already in the education curriculum.Mr Kalkum explained that the tool kit has different tools which are used depending on the age group being taught and it is designed to suit the Zambian culture. – ZANIS The Sun